How to build a home server with Windows 8

Saying that Windows 8 is a major shift in strategy for Microsoft is pretty obvious at this point. Between the Metro interface, complete dismissal of the start menu, focus on touch screen devices, and myriad other changes; this is not the Windows of the Bill Gates era. One change which hasn’t received much discussion is the idea of Windows 8 being Microsoft’s next iteration for not only Windows 7, but for Windows Home Server.

Forget the CD and install Windows 8 with your flash drive

A guide? To install Windows? Slapping a new operating system on your desktop or laptop PC should be old hat by now, right? This is Windows 8, after all: Odds are pretty good that you, an astute and well-travelled Maximum PC reader, have been around the ol’ Windows installation block a few times before.

This small gaming PC isn't as wee as our Wee Ass-Kicking Machine, but it kicks more ass

Way back in December 2010, we built an awesome Mini-ITX gaming rig dubbed the Wee Ass-Kicking Machine. It featured a Core i7-870 CPU, a GeForce GTX 460 GPU, 4GB of DDR3, a 1TB hard drive, and a 120GB SSD—all crammed into a Silverstone SG07 chassis not much larger than a shoebox. The total cost? Around $1,600 (at the time).

It’s, uh, been a while since then, though, and I thought it was high time we built another Mini-ITX gaming rig. This one’s not quite as small, but it’s got a lot more oomph. We’re using the BitFenix Prodigy, which has room for a full-size ATX PSU, scads of hard drives, and even a 240mm radiator (if you swing that way), while still being small enough to be lugged around by its convenient carrying handles.

DayZ is widely considered one of the best PC mods of all time. Who wouldn't want to be dropped off into a gigantic post-apocalyptic zombie world where death is permanent? Over one million players are having a blast just trying to survive in the game.

While DayZ is amazingly tense and fun, the Arma 2 mod can also be a headache to install. Which version of Arma 2 should you get? Retail? Steam? What patches should you download? Maximum PC's DayZ installation guide will answer all of the questions and address some of the more common issues plaguing the mod.

Get the most out of Google Chrome

Let’s face it, the light-and-fast Google Chrome browser is the only way to surf the web—no question. But whether you’re new to the browser or an old veteran, we’ve got some tricks to improve your mileage. Our Google Chrome Optimization Guide will show you which Google Chrome extensions to download and ways to tweak settings you didn't even know were there.

How to build a modern-day PC into a replica of the Commodore 64

The Mission

Many people wax poetic about the polite ’50s, the radical ’60s, or the wild ’70s, but for nerds, the 1980s was the best decade. A full-on war raged in the new category of “personal computer,” no one operating system ruled the world, and, man, you could walk into a Toys “R” Us and buy the world’s all-time bestselling PC: the Commodore 64.

Valve has released Steam Big Picture Mode, which provides PC gamers with a new, elegant TV-tailored experience of Steam. The problem is Big Picture Mode is currently only in open beta testing, and finding out how to opt into the beta can be tricky. Detailed below are steps to help you get Steam's new Big Picture Mode running smoothly on your big-screen TV.

With so many cloud computing storage services available to you, you don’t ever truly need to pay for online storage. When your 2GB DropBox runs out, you can always get 5 free gigs from Amazon. When that runs out, why not open up a SkyDrive account for an additional 7GB? The only problem with cloud computing is that your files get spread out over different services, which can make it harder to find things, and can also increase your exposure to risk of losing access to files. If you use 3 online cloud services, there’s three times the chance that some of your files will be inaccessible at any given time, due to service outage. In this article, we’ll show you how to mitigate both of these problems, by using GoodSync to keep an up-to-date local backup of all the files on multiple cloud computing storage services.

Happy Windows 8 Consumer Preview day! Or, rather, happy day-after-Windows-8…. you get the idea. As an astute Maximum PC reader, you’re no doubt itching to get your hands on a not-quite-final build of Windows 8 to tinker around with.

But here’s the problem: You like using your current operating system. In fact, you probably have a great number of files, applications, and games all intertwined with your current operating system. And the absolute last thing you want to do – aside from learning how to use the Metro UI (we kid, we kid) – is back up everything within your operating system, wipe your drive, and introduce a fresh-faced Windows 8 into your life as your primary OS. Just think of all the application reinstallations you’ll have to go through!

Luckily, you have two awesome options when it comes to testing out Windows 8 without mucking up your primary Windows installation, settings, files, or any of that. You can split your current hard drive storage setup to create an extra, blank partition – Windows 8 goes there. Or, if you just want to monkey around in a self-contained environment within your current operating system, you can install Windows 8 onto a virtual PC.

You've found that hot new app on the Android Market, and you can't wait to click the Install button. But you're getting the message that the app isn't compatible with your device. Being the good Maximum user that you are, you'd rather find out for yourself. Those messages are sometimes wrong, after all. Or perhaps you want to take advantage of the daily giveaways in the Amazon Appstore. Or, if you're one of the millions of Kindle Fire owners, you may want more choices than the limited Amazon Appstore provides. All of the above comprise sufficient reason to start sideloading apps to your Android device.